A Roux of Revenge (34 page)

“I know you liked him.”

“Yes, I did.” She shook out the sweater she held in her hands and refolded it. “And now everyone will know what a fool I’ve been—again.”

“Don’t say
that.” Lucky reached across the counter and stilled Cecily’s hands. “How could you possibly have known? He used us all. Even Nate. Nate feels terrible too. We all liked him. He was very charming.”

“A scoundrel and a murderer.” Cecily burst into tears.

Lucky moved around the counter and led Cecily through the curtained doorway to the storeroom. She grasped her hand and pulled Cecily down
onto a stool. She glanced around. A box of tissues sat on a worktable. “Here.” She passed several tissues to Cecily and waited while Cecily blew her nose loudly.

“I was very attracted to him. You know, at my age, there aren’t a lot of opportunities—not like you. You’re just a young thing. Lots of men will cross your path.”

Lucky shrugged. She wasn’t so sure of that. The only man she had
ever wanted was Elias, and she was probably losing him. She had to steel her heart. There was no other choice.

“My sister is fine on her own. She doesn’t miss having a husband or a man in her life. She’s always been like that. But I’m different, Lucky. I never thought . . . I never thought I’d end up alone, and I don’t want this to be all there is.”

“I think . . .” Lucky thought a moment.
“I think when it comes to that part of life, none of us has a choice. We’re given what we’re given. We can go out and look and then try to pound a square peg into a round hole, but that usually doesn’t work. And both people end up going their separate ways. I don’t mean that it’s impossible,” Lucky continued, “but I think when the time is right, the right person falls into your lap.”

“But
I thought Joe . . . whatever his real name is, might be that person. I thought this could be it, Lucky.” Cecily looked up. Lucky reached over and wiped a tear off Cecily’s cheek.

“Don’t give up hope, Cecily. Keep your eyes open and keep looking.”

“I’m just an old maid,” she replied.

“No you’re not! Love has nothing to do with age or beauty or brains or anything for that matter. Love
is love. It comes to us when it comes to us, and I wonder if we really have a lot of choice in the matter. The only important thing is not to become bitter . . . to keep your heart open.”

Cecily nodded. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I was pounding a square peg into a round hole. Obviously Joe wasn’t right for me, or anybody else for that matter. But I just feel like such a fool.”

“Forgive
yourself. We were all taken in.”

“Thanks, Lucky. You’re a sweetheart.”

“I better get back. I just stopped in to see you and make sure you were okay. I’m really sorry it all came out like this.”

Cecily took a deep breath. “Had to. The truth had to come out. And you and Janie, you could have been killed because of that awful man. And your poor face.” Cecily reached out. Her fingertips
gently touched Lucky’s cheek, still aflame in shades of red and purple.

“But we weren’t. We’re alive and well.”

“Thank heavens.” Cecily leaned closer and whispered, “And I hate to admit this, but here I was, looking down my nose at the travelers, and they turned out to be the best of the lot.”

Chapter 51

L
UCKY STEPPED ACROSS
her threshold and shut and locked the apartment door behind her. She took a deep breath. Blessed privacy. She turned on a lamp in the living room and pulled the drapes
closed. The sun had set hours ago. Now the days had grown very short. Soon bitter winter would be upon them. The first anniversary of her parent’s death was around the corner—less than two months away. How her life had been turned upside down by their accident. And how was it possible almost a whole year had passed? There wasn’t a day that went by when she didn’t feel they were with her. It was
more than seeing their photos on her bureau and filling the apartment with keepsakes from her old home. It wasn’t because she made a point of visiting their gravesites regularly. She missed them terribly, but they lived still in her heart. Was it just the memory of them? Or do the dead hover and watch over the living left behind?

She looked around the apartment. Janie and Miriam had come by
at some point during the day and packed up all of Janie’s things. Lucky walked down the hallway. Miriam had straightened everything up. Janie’s sheets and blankets were clean and folded in the linen closet. Someone had even dusted. The sink was scrubbed, and the dishes stacked in the kitchen cabinet. Lucky was sure an experienced housewife had done most of the work. She only hoped Janie had helped
her mother with some of it. A small vase of yellow and orange marigolds sat on the kitchen table, a folded note next to the flowers. The extra key she had given Janie sat on top of the paper. Lucky opened it. It said, “
We can never thank you enough.
”
Janie’s signature was scrawled underneath, and next to that was Miriam’s in a neat script.

Lucky collapsed into a chair, not bothering to slip
out of her jacket. She felt completely drained. It had taken a lot of energy to keep up a cheerful front over the past few days. No one had even asked her once how Elias was. And what hurt even more was the fact that Elias had not even tried to make contact. Sophie was correct. The gossip that they were no longer together, that Elias was seeing someone else, had spread all over town. Lucky felt
humiliated. Angry and hurt. She pushed herself out of the chair and trudged to the bathroom. She wrenched the faucets in the bathtub open and let hot water pour in, filling the tub. She dumped a copious amount of bubble bath into the stream. A nice hot soak would help her aching muscles. Aching not just from work, from being on her feet all day, but from all the tension over the past several days.
But how could Elias just ignore her? If he no longer had feelings for her, if he had fallen back in love with Paula, couldn’t he have been decent enough to simply tell her? Why did she have to hear this from someone else? She cringed inwardly when she realized what a fool she must have looked like, arriving at his office to find him close to Paula both times. Cecily had absolutely nothing to be ashamed
of. She, Lucky Jamieson, could take the prize for being the chief fool.

The phone started to ring. Lucky groaned. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She had had to repeat the story of Janie’s kidnapping and rescue to everyone who had come into the restaurant—minus the true story of Janie’s connection to Eamon. She couldn’t go through it one more time. The phone continued to ring. Maybe it
was Jack. If Jack was calling, she’d answer. She shut the faucets off and went back to the kitchen. She glanced at the caller ID and recognized Elias’s home number. Her face flushed. Obviously he was calling because he had heard of the close call at the Stones and in the cornfield. Someone must have told him about it. Or maybe he’s received Janie’s medical report from the hospital in Lincoln Falls
and, wondering why he hadn’t been informed, had started asking questions. Whatever. How he found out didn’t concern her. She ignored the ringing phone and returned to the bathroom. She stripped off her clothes and stepped gingerly into the steaming tub, sinking under the bubbles. She heard garbled speech on the answering machine as Elias left his message. She didn’t want to hear the message, and
she didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t care what he had to say. She was finished. She closed her eyes and held her breath and sank under the bubbles, not wanting any human sound to reach her ears.

Chapter 52

L
UCKY SNUGGLED INTO
her bathrobe and pulled the comforter up to her chin. The apartment had been so cold when she woke, she turned up the thermostat, made a quick cup of strong coffee and
carried it back to her bed. She sipped it slowly, relishing the comfort and the warmth. Her bruised cheek was turning from a purplish blue to a greenish yellow. She touched it gingerly. It was still sore.

She took a last sip of coffee and padded back to the kitchen. The apartment was warm enough now to get into the shower. As she headed down the hall to the bathroom, she heard a knock at the
front door. She stopped in her tracks. It wasn’t even seven o’clock. Who would be at her door at this hour? Perhaps it was Miriam having an anxiety attack. She tied her robe tighter and cracked open the front door. Elias stood in the hallway.

Her first reaction was anger. What right did he have to come to her apartment with no warning at this ridiculous hour? And why now? He hadn’t stopped
by the Spoonful in over a week, not since Paula had joined the Clinic. He had done a very good job of ignoring her and the rumors flying around town.

“Elias!” Her tone was distant if not icy. She couldn’t help it.

“Can I come in?”

She hesitated. “I was just about to get in the shower. Is this important?”

“Yes, I think it is.”

“Very well.” She opened the door wider and returned
to the kitchen, aware that her hair was sticking up in various places, her face was unwashed and discolored, her teeth weren’t brushed, and she was in an old bathrobe that had seen better days. Elias followed her down the hallway.

“Would you like some coffee?” It wouldn’t kill her to be civilized, she thought.

“No. Thanks. Lucky, I just wanted to apologize.”

“For what?”
Make him spell it out
, she thought.

“For a number of things. For not calling all week. For . . . I just found out late last night about what happened with you and Janie. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help you.” He stared at her bruised cheek and jaw. “And . . . I also found out about some of the rumors going around about me and Paula. I want you to know they’re not at all true.”

Lucky sat at the kitchen
table, still gripping her coffee mug. “How did you hear?”

“Rosemary finally told me. She’s been pretty mad at me because she thought the rumors about me and Paula were true too.” He paused. “I’ve been terribly busy, but I know that’s no excuse. I meant what I said the other night. That my former relationship with Paula was over.”

Lucky closed her eyes, willing herself not to fling the
mug across the table at him. “I saw you with her in the office, Elias. You were about to kiss her. There’s no need to lie about it.”

“What?” He flushed a bright red. “That’s not true, Lucky. Not true at all.”

She hesitated, not willing to tell him all the gossip that Sophie had conveyed. “I had heard rumors too. That’s why I went over there to talk to you. To find out what exactly was
going on.” She didn’t want to admit to him that the entire week she had felt like a one-ton stone was lodged in her chest. “After you left the office, Paula said . . . implied that something was going on between the two of you.”

“And you believed that?” Elias raised his voice. “Why didn’t you talk to me?”

“That’s exactly what I was trying to do when I went to your office,” she shouted
back.

“Lucky.” He reached for her hand across the table. She had to stop herself from pulling away. “Please believe me. Nothing was going on—at least not on my part. That day, Paula said she had something in her eye and asked me to have a look. That’s why we were standing by the window.”

“That’s a good one!” Lucky replied.

“It’s true. Stop trying to make me look like the bad guy here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucky shot back.

“It means that I’m not the one dragging my feet in this relationship. We’ve been together for how long, and you won’t even tell me why Jack calls you ‘Lucky.’ How crazy is that?”

His words stung. He had a point. Lucky took a deep breath. “Virgil Lukorsky . . . Lucky,” she said.

“What?”

“Jack named me after a Navy boxer because
of my right hook. I didn’t want you to know. I was embarrassed. I wanted you to think I was feminine.”

Elias was completely silent. He stared at her and blinked. Finally he said, “Oh.”

Lucky waited.

“I never thought you weren’t feminine. Look, I’m sorry I shouted. I didn’t mean to. But you have to believe me. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happened between me and Paula.” He hesitated
then sheepishly said, “At least not on my part.”